Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Struggling to score runs for the second straight day, the Dodgers fell to the Giants 3-1 on Sunday night. A split in the season opening series at home against the Giants is a bit of a disappointment, especially when Los Angeles outscored San Francisco 17-2 in the first two games of the year.
The Dodgers had a shot in the 8th, loading the bases with two outs. After singles by Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger, Chris Taylor grounded out and Corey Seager was hit by a pitch.
Electing to leave Enrique Hernandez in the game to face righty submariner Tyler Rogers, the Dodgers saw their rally come to an end before it began as he grounded out to third. AJ Pollock also led off the ninth with a double, the lone extra-base hit of the game, but nothing came of it.
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Updated: This is a pretty stupid reason.
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With the offense sputtering, the Dodgers’ bullpen gave up runs in the sixth and seventh to fall behind.
Brusdar Graterol’s second appearance didn’t go as smoothly as his first, with a pair of singles around a flyout ending his outing after eight pitched. Adam Kolarek got a flyout, but Mauricio Dubon managed to send a ball out of the zone into left field for the go-ahead single.
In the seventh, a Pedro Baez walk to Darin Ruf quickly resulted in a scoring opportunity as the 33-year-old stole his second base in 288 career MLB games. Donovan Solano singled off of Baez to extend the lead to 3-1.
Scott Alexander and Kenley Jansen did throw a scoreless 8th and 9th, respectively.
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Starting his first game of the season, Julio Urias put himself into a few jams, but worked out them for the most part and kept the Dodgers in the game.
With runners at first and second following an infield single and walk to open the 3rd, the Giants pushed across just one run on a single by Ruf. Having struck out Wilmer Flores, Urias got Hunter Pence to line out and Solano to fly out.
The 5th started off similarly with a walk and single to open the inning, but Urias retired Ruf for the first time as he froze him with an 0-2 slider. Getting ahead 0-2 on Pence as well, a Urias curve led to a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning.
That ended his first start of the season with the 23-year-old needing 78 pitches to get through 5 innings, allowing 5 hits, 3 walks, 1 run and 3 strikeouts.
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Offensively, yeah it sucked.
A single and steal, his first as a Dodger, by Mookie Betts put a runner on second for the first time in the game in the 3rd. Turner walked to put two men on with two out, and Bellinger came through with a single to right.
Drew Smyly lasted just 3 1/3 innings as the Giants continued to their group effort on the mound, using seven pitchers. After appearing for an inning on Thursday, Smyly allowed just the one run on four hits and a walk.
Shaun Anderson entered for his second appearance in as many days and struck out the first two batters he faced after striking out three Saturday night.
Shaun Anderson's 90 mph slider 👀 pic.twitter.com/en0XC1jJNs
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) July 27, 2020
Four singles through the first six innings against Smyly, Anderson, Wandy Peralta and Rico Garcia isn’t ideal. And clearly it didn’t get much better.
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Another “Mookie hates Los Angeles” update. He’s clearly being forced to wear the Three Sisters socks.
Betts also nearly set a National League record that is interestingly enough held by a former Dodger. I believe he added just one more in the 9th.
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That’s 0-2 on recaps for me. A terrific start.
